Marukame Udon – Honolulu Special

On our first full day in Honolulu, we bussed out to Downtown to walk around.  In the afternoon we got hungry and visited Maukame Udon in the middle of bustling downtown.  Marukame Udon is a chain of fast food udon shops which you can find in Japan.  We first tried this in a food court when we were in Osaka so we were excited to learn that there are several locations here in Hawaii too.

Here are the featured udons on the sandwich board in front of the entrance:

When you enter the shop, you order your preferred udon first.  Then you slowly walk through the line to pick up any more sides, such as tempura or sushi to go with your udon.

The food is all very fresh. You can see them preparing it behind the counter continuously.  Prices here are very good too. You can get filled up easily for under $10.

We both ended up getting teriyaki chicken udon bowls.  This one included zucchini, squash and prawn tempuras on the side.

This one we had squid tempura as a side.

The udons were hot and fresh and the soup base was not too salty.  The udon itself was very al-dante.

We really enjoyed coming here as it was quick and simple to order, food was fresh and prices were cheap.  Hot udon soup might not be your first choice on a tropical Hawaiian day, but no worries, they have cold udon options as well.

Seating is also very convenient as people usually eat quick and leave so turnover is fast.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Fatboy’s Honolulu – Special

After going snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, we were so hungry as it was already way past lunch time.  We drove to a nearby strip mall about 5 minutes away and found this place called Fatboy’s which serves some authentic Hawaiian food.

It’s not a fancy looking place.  It’s simple looking with a big menu behind the counter and some dated furniture.  You order and pay at the counter and pick up the food when ready.

We started with some Hawaiian Sun pop, which seems to be the popular drink around here as we see it all over the place. 

For our first dish, we ordered Hawaiian style noodles called Saimin.

It’s like a cross between a Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiian style dish so it was quite interesting.  It’s served in a Chinese style bowl.  We didn’t get a picture of the side of the bowl but it’s the red and green one with Chinese characters you usually see at the Westernized Chinese restaurants.

The noodles are medium thick, not quite like Japanese ramen.  It is served in a simple clear soup base (chicken soup maybe) with some spam and also some of that Japanese artificial seafood thingy which you normally get in a Japanese ramen bowl.  This was not a complex noodle but did the job in filling us up.

Next we ordered another popular dish in Hawaii called the Loco Moco.  It’s a big hamburger steak, with an egg covered with gravy over rice.

It’s usually served with a sunny side up egg that’s almost raw, but because we have weak stomachs, we asked for the egg to be well done.  It’s served with a small side of salad.  The hamburger steak was quite tasty and went well with the gravy and rice.  What is strange is that they served this on a paper plate so it kind of felt like we were eating in a food court.

Fatboy’s is a simple restaurant where you can get some well known Hawaiian dishes. Their menu is diverse and prices are not out of the ordinary.  Service here was quick and straight forward, but not exactly full service as you order and pick up food yourself.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Anh and Chi–Vancouver

We visited Anh and Chi on a Friday night for dinner.  Ahn and Chi serves upscale looking Vietnamese inspired cuisines.  It’s located on Main Street in East Van.

We got there just before 6PM and saw the restaurant was already full with a handful of people waiting for tables outside.  We put our name down and waited patiently outside.  Luckily it was a nice evening with no rain.  They have heaters in the waiting area outside to keep you warm.

After about 30 minutes, we got a text saying our table is almost ready.  We proceeded to go inside the restaurant to wait and saw it was bustling with people enjoying their food.

Pics of the inside:

Bar area:

Partially exposed kitchen:

We got our table and our server promptly brought us water.  It was the first time we found a slice of cucumber in our water.  It made the water look nice but the cucumber taste was a bit unusual.

We ordered a few appetizers to start.  This is the Bánh Tráng Trộn Rice Paper Snack
It has rice paper at the bottom and topped with fresh mango, beef jerky, roasted peanuts, dried shrimp, quail eggs, fried shallots and some spices.

This was really tasty.  It had a nice kick and tang to it from the different spices combined.  However, we recommend you eat this right away and not let it sit too long otherwise the slices of rice paper will stick together like glue.  We learned it the hard way.

This is the fried chicken wings appetizer.  You get to choose 2 different sauces so we went with the butter garlic sauce.

It includes 10 pieces. The wings did not feel fried since it was rather tender with a light crisp skin.  It tasted more like broiled.  The wing sizes were fair for appetizer standards.

Next is the crispy spring rolls.

It came with 3 spring rolls cut in half.  The spring rolls were a bit skinny though.  It includes lettuce and some lemon grass which the server recommended we use to wrap the spring roll.

There were 3 of us tonight and we all ordered the beef pho. 

This serving size here is a lot bigger than the standard large size you get at other pho restaurants  Furthermore, there was so much beef!  It had maybe twice the serving of beef compared to other places.  The pho soup was also very rich and flavorful.

They use this fancy jacket for delivering you the bill.

Ahn And Chi is a different kind of Vietnamese restaurant with a more modern vibe to it. It is unlike the hole in the wall mom and pop pho shops, so come prepared to try something different.  The menu items are very unique, modern and specialized.

We will look forward coming back again to try their other dishes.

SFDD gives 4.5 out of 5 Delights.

Shang Noodle House - Richmond

We were craving noodles so we stopped by Shang Noodle House in Richmond. It’s located near Richmond Centre on Saba road.  We’ve visited the Shang Noodle in the New Westminster Casino months ago so this will be a good chance for us to compare.

This location is a lot smaller than New Westminster's.  It had lots of windows letting in natural light though.  It was not too busy as we arrived Sunday for an early lunch just minutes after they opened.

We got the Groupon deal which comes with an appetizer, noodle, drink and dessert.

For this first appetizer we chose takoyaki.

We got 6 in total. These were good and not too mushy.  It had a generous amount of shredded seaweed on top.

The 2nd appetizer we selected pot stickers.

The skin on these pot stickers were a bit too chewy and rough. Inside had juicy pork and veggies.

For the first noodle we chose spicy beef tendon noodle.

It had a generous serving of beef tendon. The tendon was very tender and tasty.  As well, the noodles were very al dante.  These are Chinese style ramen noodles,

For the 2nd noodle we had the house special spinach noodle. It had quite of bit of meats including bbq pork, some scallops, and shrimp and also chicken.  The noodles were unique in that they were spinach green so it felt healthy.

For the 3rd noodle (not part of groupon) we got the dandan noodles.  This had a huge amount of peanuts on top as it should. 

It also had a deep garlicky peanut sauce.  Dandan noodles are not mean to have too much soup.  I’d say it’s a half dry noodle. The noodles were also very al dante.

At the end we got mango pudding dessert which we took home instead since we were all full.

Service was quick and our server was very friendly and attentive.  Even without the Groupon, the regular prices at Shang Noodle are very reasonable.  The only downside is that parking is limited here.  You’ll have to do pay street parking or find a nearby mall if it’s on the way.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Pho Cilantro – Vancouver

We were planning to go get some noodles at Hawker’s Delight but sadly they were closed for summer vacation.  We drove up to Fraser street instead to find some pho and settled down at Pho Cilantro which we’ve never visited before.

It was a Saturday afternoon. Easy to find parking here on Fraser street. When we peeked inside the restaurant, it looked rather empty. Just 2 guys in there eating pho.  We went in and immediately seated but felt really stuffy since there was no air conditioning at all.

Since it was so stuffy inside, I guess that’s why we were served iced tea. 

It’s actually just the same tea they would have served hot. It’s not like a sweetened iced tea in case you are wondering.

We first ordered a large rare pho with beef balls:

When the bowl arrived, the beef was already well done…  So much for ordering ‘rare’.  The soup flavour was not very deep at all.

Next we ordered the dry noodle. Vermicelli with pork and spring roll.

It looked nicely presented when it arrived with all the different colors catching our eye.  However, the salad part consisted of more than half raw bean sprouts.  It was too much bean sprouts to say the least.

The spring roll as you can see looked over fried.  It was so hard to bite into.  Furthermore, the spring rolls here had a strange taste to it.  Kind of sour. Which makes me wonder if the meat was bad.

Service was not great either. Throughout our sitting, the 2 people working just hid behind the counter with their backs facing the customers while playing with their phones.  We were waiting to make eye contact so that we can get our bill but after getting impatient we just went up to the counter to pay.  The server finally saw us at the counter turned around with a smirk and said ‘oh’…

Food was not good, neither was the service, neither was the facilities being so hot.  Now we understand why it was so empty on a Saturday afternoon during lunch time.

SFDD gives 2 out of 5 Delights.

Ramen Danbo - Robson St

While taking a stroll down Robson St, we got a little hungry and noticed a line up of people outside a rather new ramen shop.  We decided to give it a try since the line up was not too long.

Danbo’s menu:

If you are ordering ramen, you have many options to choose from compared to other ramen shops.  Here, you must choose the denseness of noodles, the thickness of soup and noodles, even the fattiness of the pork and soup, and finally the spiciness.

We started off with gyoza:

The gyoza was pan fried to a light crisp.  It has pork filling and was done quite well.

This is the classic ramen:

For the options, we chose normal for everything.  The soup was very good and not overly salty.  The noodle texture was perfect while the pork was very tender.  If you are craving for more, you can request more noodles for a small charge:

We enjoyed our visit to Danbo because the food was great and also the seating arrangement was very comfortable.  The restaurant did not feel overly crowded nor was it stuffy even though it was a full house.  The servers were all Japanese and they were very friendly.

We definitely recommend you try it out if you were craving for Ramen after doing your downtown shopping.

SFDD gives 4 out of 5 Delights.

Ho Yuen Kee Restaurant - Vancouver

We were craving for some wonton noodles since it’s been a while since we been to a Cantonese style restaurant for lunch.  We thought of Ho Yuen Kee (HYK) along south Fraser street in Vancouver since they are known for there dumplings.

We got there late Saturday afternoon after 2pm and didn’t have to wait for seats as the lunch time crowd had already dispersed.  Their prices looked rather reasonable as various bowl noodles there can be had for under $7.

We ordered a wonton noodle pictured here:

The wonton’s were very large and plump. You get 5 of them with the noodles. The noodles were standard wonton noodles and had a good texture to it.  The soup was not overly salty.

Next here is the suigau (dumpling) with noodles.  A suigau is a bit larger than a wonton and has more pork inside and Chinese mushrooms.

The dumplings were very good and plump too.  The soup and noodles are the same as in the wonton.

We also ordered beef fried noodle:

The this was a big small. Kind of like the size you get at the mini happy hour menus at some Hong Kong style cafes.  It could have used some more wok power though.

Finally, HYK is also popular for their ginger milk dessert:

This had a deep ginger flavour and was also very smooth.  It is like a milk pudding or tofu dessert. This is definitely worth trying if you visit HYK.

The food was good but the servers were not that great.   When bringing the food to the table,  they dropped the bowls and plates hard and loud on the table and did not even announce what food they were bringing. We also thought the servers talked a bit too loud amongst themselves.  They mostly gossiped about their other coworkers which they should not have done with customers still around.

Anyhow, food good, service bad.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 5 Delights.

Shang Noodle House - New Westminster

Shang Noodle House is located in New Westminster’s Starlight Casino.  We found a Groupon deal for this place so we decided to try it out.  There is also a location in Richmond too but we thought New West would have less people.  They serve a variety of Asian noodles.

We got here at around 6pm Saturday and the place was rather quiet but more people trekked in to fill up the place after 6:30pm or so.

The restaurant is large with a lot of seating.  It’s a rather casual dining area. When we first walked in it felt like a cafeteria because it was so big.  The service was quite good as the servers were quite attentive and friendly to bring us to our tables, take our orders and bring us tea.

For the Groupon deal for 2, you get a selection of appetizers, a choice of noodles from their menu, 2 pops and dessert.

The spicy wonton came first:

There were 5 pieces of the wonton in a spicy soy sauce.  It was a plump average wonton.

Then came the fried chicken wings:

It came topped with some fried garlic.  The wings had a good zing to it and was not too oily nor overly fried.  It would have been better if the wings were consistently sized.  As you can see there were a couple of mini wings.

For the main noodle dish, we both chose the featured ramen in lobster bisque soup with grilled pork chop.

The noodle was a rather large portion.  In terms of taste, the soup was not overly seasoned/MSG.  The noodles may have been a tad too soggy for our liking.  We would prefer the noodles to be more chewy (al dante).

The pork chops came on a side dish like this.

They were already sliced but as you can see, the pork chop was rather thin.

The dessert was mango pudding:

The mango pudding was quite good, it had pieces of real mango inside and was not too sweet.  We were quite full from this Groupon deal.  Overall the food was good and they did not skimp because we were using a Groupon.

This location’s parking was quite convenient as you can use the large casino parking lot.  You also don’t have to walk through the casino to get to the restaurant as it’s located outside of the actual casino.  The servers all seemed very friendly.

We’d certainly like to come back to try their other noodles too. Even without a Groupon, their regular prices are very reasonable for the portion they serve.

SFDD gives 3.5 out of 4 Delights.